As I suppose you can imagine, it takes (took?) a lot of work, time and energy to keep Scattershot going. The constant pressure (that I put on myself!) to keep this balloon inflated ultimately got to me. But I think what really led to my hiatus was that it became so disheartening to constantly see thesame stupid shit going down day after day after day. Healthy doses of snark and invective can only carry you so far before a depressing thought starts to kick in: None of this shit is ever going to change. It's like shouting at the wind.

Stupid people (and misinformed people) are forever going to support cynical ideologues, against all their own best interests, that much we know for sure. But the simple fact is, the spineless, milquetoast Democratic Party is going to disappoint passionate, principled liberals 10 or 15 times every single day, while the Republican Party (still and always batshit fucking insane) remains determined not to yield one inch of ground to the socialist Kenyan Muslim dictator. Mark my words, plenty of idiots still believe Barack Obama is a socialist Kenyan Muslim dictator, even though most of his policies are farther to the right than those of Richard M. Nixon. Despite all this, it appears the the Republicans are poised to gain seats in the House this fall and there's an outside chance they could take the Senate?? Are you fucking kidding me? That will be the end of us all.

And let me ask this question for a minute: WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS BENGHAZI BULLSHIT ALL ABOUT?!?! "They changed the talking points!!|!!|!|" It's the battle cry of the stupid. Four fucking people died there, okay? Four. That's incredibly tragic bad news, but where was the outrage from these Republican/FOX News motherfuckers during the Bush administration, when we suffered the 9/11 attacks (3000 dead), despite strong warnings of imminent danger, and then endured that goddamn fucking Iraq war BULLSHIT for 10 fucking years (4500 Americans dead!?!)? Now we celebrate that mediocre piece of shit Bush for "paintings" (I use the term loosely) that would be embarrassingly bad if they'd been done by a 9-year-old. What. the. fuck?

We have lost our moorings in this godforsaken country.

You know, whenever I think about how badly these fucking Republican cocksuckers and their minions in the FOX News disinformation environment have fucked up everything, for all of us, I wonder what the Dixie Chicks must think? They said a handful critical words about that godawful failure George Bush, a couple sentences basically, and for that they suffered death threats, an endless barrage of criticism from the likes of that blockhead Hannity and the doltish O'Reilly, not to mention the end of their very careers.

Here's the actual quote:

“Just so you know, we’re on the good side with y’all. We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that the president of the United States is from Texas.”

For that they saw their popularity go right down the tubes. They are so done, they've barely been heard from at all since that fateful day, yet brainless motormouth Ted Nugent is on TV constantly, practically daring some gun nut to take a potshot at Barack Obama, or Hillary Clinton, or Harry Reid, or Dianne Feinstein. WTF?

The vitriol and fear that's ginned up on a daily basis by these conservative assholes is pretty well too much to bear. They are actively engaged in a mission to make the people of the United States stupider and more fearful of each other. If you'd have told me it could get any worse than it was 10 years ago, I'd have not believed that possible. But it's way worse. Way. The fact that Sarah Palin, Ted Cruz, Louie Gohmert, Steve "Mexicans have calves the size of cantaloupes" King, Michelle "Crazy Eyes" Bachmann, Mitt Fucking Romney and even the inarticulate, uneducated, racist, openly seditious cowtard Cliven Goddamn Bundy (AYFKM with that shit???) are held up as a heroes to the conservative "movement" (more like bowel movement) confirms just how much worse it is. Hello.....? Those people are goddamn fucking idiots, every single one of them!

I just couldn't take it anymore. I'd rather binge-watch Breaking Bad and Rescue Me than endure one more day of idiotic bullshit. Far better to focus on fun and family and sports and helping run my union and fixing up my house (finally) and being a good person and going to happy hour at McCarthy's (occasionally!) to shoot the shit than to sit at my laptop and have to write about all this bullshit every single day.

1.16.2014

"We love our young son and grandson dearly, as does everyone in his extended family," the statement said. "His whole family is heartbroken, as are many others in our tight-knit community in Roswell. We understand that having guns in the home increased the chances of a tragedy like this happening and, while it it too late for the victims in this case, we are going to turn all of our firearms over to the proper authorities and begin working toward making Roswell a better, gun-free, community." [Editor's note: fixed that for them.]

11.12.2013

11.08.2013

Real life Obamacare scenario: I have a friend who was buying her own
insurance policy (for herself and her adult son) on the individual market. She has an Anthem/Blue Cross policy that
offers decent coverage for the two of them with a $250 monthly premium.

She recently received a letter from Anthem notifying her
that the company was required to cancel the policy – because of the Affordable
Care Act! (Right Wing horror story #1) – but they helpfully suggested she take
a comparable “replacement policy” with a monthly premium of $550! (Right Wing
horror story #2). If that were the end
of it, I’d be first in line to agree that this Obamacare thing is a travesty of
economic injustice.

A visit to a qualified “ACA Navigator,” however, working through
coveredca.com, California’s
Affordable Care Act portal, found this lady a much more generous “Silver plan”
policy ($2000 deductible and $6300 max out-of-pocket per year, $0 preventive
care visits, co-pays in the $15 range and $5 for prescription drugs) that will
cost her $60 per month, thanks to the ACA subsidy. For another $20/month she could move up to a
Gold Plan. The choice is hers.

Make no mistake about it, the Affordable Care Act is going
to help improve the lives of millions of Americans.

10.25.2013

Former National Security Agency director Michael Hayden is more used to being the one listening in on conversations than the one being eavesdropped on himself. The tables were turned on Thursday, however, as Hayden suddenly found his supposedly private conversations blasted across the Internet.

Riding on the Acela express train between New York and Washington, DC, Hayden had the bad luck of sitting near entrepreneur and former MoveOn.org director Tom Matzzie. “Former NSA spy boss Michael Hayden on Acela behind me blabbing ‘on background as a former senior admin official’,” Matzzie wrote on his Twitter account. “Sounds defensive.” For the next twenty minutes, Mattzie continued to livetweet Hayden’s conversations slamming the Obama administration, all the while insisting that he be referred to only on background.

Dude must have thought he was under the cone of silence. Hilarious denouement: The eavesdropper even managed to get a photo with Maxwell SmartElmer Fudd Michael Hayden at the end of the train ride.

Russell Brand: "The planet is being destroyed; we are creating an underclass; we are exploiting poor people all over the world; and the genuine legitimate problems of the people are not being addressed by our political parties."

Q: "All those things may be true..."

RB: "The are true!" [...hands outstretched in exasperation...]

[...]

Q: "What would a revolution be like?"

RB: "Well I think what it won't be like, is a huge disparity between rich and poor, where 300 Americans have the same wealth at 85 million poorest Americans; where there is an exploited and underserved underclass being continually ignored; where welfare is slashed while politicians go to court to defend the rights of bankers to continue receiving their bonuses."

Q: "But what's the scheme? You talk vaguely about revolution. What is it?"

RB: "I think a socialist egalitarian system based on the massive redistribution of wealth with heavy taxation of corporations and massive responsibility for energy companies and any companies exploiting the environment. I think they should be taxed. I think the very concept of profit should be reduced. David Cameron says "profit isn't a dirty word," I say profit is a filthy word, because wherever there is profit there is also deficit, and this system currently doesn't address these ideas. And so why would anyone vote for it? Why would anyone be interested in it?"

"I cannot place my name on the ballot of a political party that is proud to destroy the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal workers over the vain attempt to repeal a law that would provide health care for millions of people throughout our country."

The most remarkable, confounding and absolutely infuriating thing about this film, more so than the clips of The Band at Woodstock, or the whole, legendary ensemble guesting on the Ed Sullivan show, or the private jet with John Lennon on board, or the sad reality that two members died before the age of sixty (Richard Manuel and Rick Danko), more so even than Levon's lingering bitterness toward Robbie Robertson, it is, ultimately that a golden, melodic voice, reduced to a rasping cough taken by cancer, is all that is left to describe what it's really like to get sick in America:

"Yeah well, you know, along with...that's the problem with gettin' sick...uh...you know...first you try and get well and...uh...then you try and keep from going bankrupt."